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Exclusive: First Photos of the Motorola Droid 2

Well, hello there Motorola Droid 2. We would like to officially introduce you to the readers of Droid Life. We saw your activation screen just the other day, but we’ll admit that it’s nice to finally see the rest of you.

What do you think everyone? Should we just sit back and gaze at it for a bit? Moment of silence for Droid 1? Throw a party? Be confused? Start saving?

As you can see, externally, it looks almost identical to the Droid 1. The keyboard is really the only thing to have undergone a complete overhaul and now lacks that giant gold D-pad (which no one used) and includes some puffier looking keys. There are also some minor tweaks to the lip which is covered, giving off a slightly smoother appearance. The battery cover no longer has that fingernail insert. And that’s basically it for the outside. The Droid 2 is all about the internal specs and a new version of Motoblur which doesn’t appear to be quite as intrusive as the versions we’ve seen on the Devour and Backflip.

I wish I had a release date for you, but at this time, nothing has been completely confirmed to us. The Q3 rumors for which peg both the Droid Xtreme and the Droid 2 to be launched on the same day still seem pretty likely to tell you the truth. One of our sources also informed us of a 3 hour long training session taking place on June 22nd for all retail employees which could mean training for these 2 new devices and Froyo. Yay!

Oh, and one last gem for you…

Droid 2 Boot Animation:

Thoughts? No HDMI port or front facing camera, but the internals should make it worth it right? You all loved the Droid 1 styling so much and this is almost identical. Does that make it a must-have?

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I stood in line for the droid 1 the very first day it came out. I've never had a phone that I've loved more and more like i have this phone. saying that let me say this. I have talked this phone up to all my friends and i am terribly embarrassed. How could the new droid be such a let down ? One of my best friends has the iPhone and it or my other friends blackberry has nothing on my mo-to droid. I was getting ready to spend about 800.00 bucks on this new droid because i didn't think they could give us everything they said was coming with this for any reasonable amount. If you want my money BESIDES the freaking 1800.00 a year i give Verizon. YOU WILL give me a big screen,hdmi,lots of storage,lots of speed,4G,8mp!!!!! Common!!!!! Every knows what your doing. Stringing all this technology out to us every three months all in the name of profits and quarterly figures. If the only phone i want in the whole world dishes me this crap I WILL floor model my droid, pay a early cancellation with Verizon and buy me a minute phone from walmart to use only in emergencies.

boostfreak

why would they move our precious buttons!!! i like the back button where its at!

Doc

Ahh, just for us simple people.. Is the Motorola Droid 2 the same as Droid Incredible?

MrChips

Hi Doc. No, the Motorola Droids are diffferent beasts than the Droid Incredible. That little piece of hardware is an HTC creation. Verizon has done a great job of confusing everyone about which Droid is which. Ya gotta love that marketing…

http://twitter.com/Pollita_Droid Erica Marchand

I like the Boot animation.. as for the rest of it.. eh. A bit disappointed, glad moto realized theres no real use for the D-pad other then to use it to play snake.

http://www.facebook.com/jason.a.grier Jason A. Grier

WHY DID THEY PUT THE BUBBLE KEYBOARD ON THERE?!?! I hope this is just a prototype or something… I had a bubble keyboard on my Motorola Droid and it was TERRIBLE — the keys eventually ripped and I took it to Verizon and they gave me a Droid with the “normal” keyboard — I hope they get rid of that bubble keyboard!

doomsjay

So how many of these people complaining about MotoBlur have actually used MotoBlur?

MrChips

I have. And I can say that even though it makes some things “marginally” nicer, those minor benefits are far outweighed by the fact that any phone running MotoBlur (or Sense etc.) is doomed to an endless life of being kept months behind the curve on updates to the underlying Android OS. If you are a person who doesn't need updates, then I guess that's OK, but I for one abhor it.

Also, there are a growing number of installable (and hence easily un-installable) applications in the marketplace that replace all of the functionality that manufacturer bolt-ons such as MotorBlur and HTC Sense provide. There was a time when Android needed MotoBlur and Sense to really make the UI shine. That time has passed.

Stephen

Yea, not gonna lie, I'm a little disappointed. I was expecting a faster processor and a better camera, and maybe a front facing camera (don't actually care about it but's it would be nice to remind the iPhone boy's i have one too haha). A mini HDMI port would have been nice too.

I won't knock the processor yet until we see some action on it..who knows, it may actually be a big difference, especially on 2.2.As for the screen size, I'm fine with ours for now at least.

Yankeechamp15

first of all it cant be moto blur because the motoblur logo is on it and it says with google so it is stock android

EggoEspada

Doesn't mean anything. The keys and the fact that that person who leaked this to Kellex obviously turned on the phone, saw MotoBlur on it. Phones like the Droid Incredible have the “Google” logo as well, gut have a custom UI.

http://twitter.com/ellianth Anthony E.

Well, that used to be the rule. Google's been slacking on the “with google” logo program checking…

Jeff99

After so much anticipation over this phone it is time to get the razor blades out and put on some good charolette while i sit in a dark corner and cry. If this is the Droid 2 then Motorola congratulations you have just made unicorns evolve thumbs just so they could cut there wrist from Droid depression. Wheres the 4.3 inch screen i mean come on and the processor is a joke i want big and beautiful not same and lame. This is like the droid big brother who does just that little extra well thats unless your droid is rooted then everything just falls second to it.

I want…4.3 inch hd screen 1ghz processorhdmi outfront facing camerathen we can root it and make what droid doesnt(very little) more doesable until then i will be happy with my rooted droid.

Thanks kellex for keeping this site amazingsome of that internal storage ive heard aboutNO MOTOBLUR if i wanted something besides vanilla i would go htc

Emperone

weak……..

MrChips

OK, so here's the deal:

Someone from Google needs to have a serious sit-down pow-wow with HTC and Motorola and explain to them that they will sell MORE phones if they just keep their crappy mods (Sense/MotoBlur) off the phone. They can even use the lack of custom UI as a marketing tool: “…and because we are 100% pure Android OS, you will get updates as soon as they are available! No more waiting!…” This would achieve a couple goals: Fewer bloggers bitching about “Fragmentation” and more happy customers getting the their just desserts (Froyo, Gingerbread…) that much quicker.

Also, with the availability of more and more high-performance launcher apps in the marketplace (LauncherPro anyone?) the need for these custom manufacturer mods is greatly reduced already. I think Sense and MotoBlur's time has come. Let's put them to bed and close the door forever…

Oh: Regarding all the other Droid 2 specs I only have one thing to say: “FAIL!” Back to the drawing board Moto…

Eric

LOL. Once again Moto fails. What a pathetic sequal to a great phone.(and I thought the Iphone 4 was a bad upgrade) The specs are weak and Motoblur! give me a break. For all of you that bad mouthed the Incredible heres a big HAHA to you. Glad I went with HTC

http://twitter.com/DavidRaymund0 David valdez

Not the monster droid I expected.

mouzz

i can´t understand why everyone is complaining about the cpu … 750 mhz this 750 mhz that why would u want a 1.5 ghz cpu???? so u can run benchmarks faster ????? wear out the battery faster ???? more heat??????? if this is a new cpu architecture lets wait and see NO ?????my concerns are the lack of hdmi port, the front facing camera (who the hell uses that more than once?), 5mp its ok i like my photos of droid1 would be nice to see 720p recording though.Also there´s something about the new keyboard that doesnt inspire me great thrust, though i love the droid 1 keyboard the only con i have with it is that i can´t write without looking at it.

Ace Z.

I'm truly and extremely disappointed with the DROID 2 I did really expect better. The only thing I do like is the boot animation, which will be on my phone pretty soon thanks to Kellex and Developers. =)

http://limpet.net/mbrubeck/ Matt Brubeck

The keyboard is better, but I'm still hoping for a next-gen Android phone with a good quality 5-row keyboard like the G1.

Wow, the Motorola Droid brand just went from 'top of the line' to 'has been.' Weak processor and another crappy keyboard with no other significant improvements? This is not the droid I'm looking for.

http://twitter.com/kamalvaid Kamal Vaid

Thanks for the pictures..!

DuffMan

so much Fail…

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/4EPXEO5USRVZDTHFOF6R5CDDVQ Jonathan

Not good enough.

OldNuc

Without a real deal from VZW you will get to spend some hard earned cash for what is a minor upgrade. Does not strike me as a real good idea as the “real” upgrade to a 1GHz processor will be along very shortly after this phone hits the street.

marty mar

I have a question, Am i allowed to make a video on youtube using these images?

nkhex19

I like that they stuck to the original look with a few tweaks to it. if it does have Motoblur then that will make me not upgrade to it. Please Moto NO MOTOBLUR, or make it an option to take off and have stock Android.

LP

This is Motorola Droid 1.5

I was hoping to see some additional features such as HDMI out, 1500mA batt instead of the 1350, larger internal storage, and definately no motoBlurrrr. However, it appears that the camera, and screen is likely the same as Droid 1. Hmmm… confused!

Gregalst

No thank you. They WONT get my hyped up like they did the Blackberry Storm 2 when I had the first version. I'll wait until the 2ghz Motorola, or one with a front facing camera. I'll pass.

http://twitter.com/chairthrower Mike Richichi

So if this has Wi-Fi tethering, I assume all Verizon phones will when upgraded to 2.2?

http://twitter.com/zach471 Zach Grabill

I do like some of the changes to the keyboard. But some of the internals sound a bit behind the curve…

timarnette

I will keep the one I have. LOL

Quyendg

It's a sad day in Droid Land… Looks like I won't be “upgrading” any time soon. Rooted Droid 1 for life!!!

Earthlyray

no front camera, than I can wait until my verizon contract is over. was worried there. the onlt legit item will be front camera than the marriage with skype will be final. everything is minor and not needed.

On_Droids

Wow…So much emotion is drawn by the awesome let down of the Droid 2 ho hum specs (not to mention motoblur…yikes). OH well. I'm still under contract. Now, any news when Droid 3 comes out?

Teh Flower

Uhh guys… Everyone complaining about ONLY 750mhz is falling victim to the stupidity that is the numbers game. There is far more to processors than just the numbers. The rumor is that this phone has an OMAP3630, vs the OMAP3430 in our current Droids.

There's a comparison of the power. Not only is the STOCK Droid2's processor 200mhz faster, but the processor itself is more efficient (hello battery, hello less heat, hello overclocking potential) and it's just stronger all around. Graphically, it's about 80% faster than our current Droids.

Trust me, if the Droid2 IS packing the new OMAP3630, it is a major improvement over our current Droids. Not only that, it comes with 8gb internal, another major improvement. And the new keyboard looks tons better as well!

Teh Flower

Think about it guys. What would you rather have, the 2ghz Pentiums from oh so many years ago, or the new 1.3ghz Core2Solo's of today?

If anyone says they'd go for the Pentiums, they are in for a rude awakening.

Qwkartist2000

im all about crazy power too but i need battery life as well so if its not 1ghz and performs better i could be down with that

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/BH35ELSPYB6NTWJ2U4UW45DMAA martin craig

Thats not really a great comparison to be honest as when the first core duo chips came out in some cases the single core cpu performed better and then theyre was the core 2 duo then we have today the i7 which is different again. So IF you want to compare the best pentiums/xenon at that time to the very first core duo then well we would have to sit on the bench. Your also forgetting the apps as far as I know unless the devs have programmed them to utilize both cores then well…It took its time to adapt on the pc market never mind a mobile phone market.

Jai Taigas

In my opinion, internal storage is over rated. I don't see the big deal behind it. I love the ability to swap out sd cards for storage. You can have as many cards as you want and not have to worry about it. Filled up your 8 gig sd card? No worries buy a new one. Especially with Froyo's ability to install apps onto the sd card, the idea of internal storage is obsolete in my opinion. Though Obsolete is probably a bit too harsh. As for the 80% increase in speed, I”ll hold my tongue on that but say to be careful with the usage of percentages as a measure of increase.For example, I could say that Johnson company increased it's sales by 80% Wow, sounds great. But what I didn't tell you is that their previous sales was $1 so increased by 80% is an increase of $0.80 which isn't that much once you see the numbers. My point is, a new cell phone is expensive. I want to make sure I'm getting something that's damn impressive for the money I'm going to shell out. And not get version 1.5 of a cell phone. Honestly, from what I have seen, This is more like Motorola Droid 1.5 instead of 2. Besides, on a final note. My battery lastes me the day anyways. And I run Bugless Rom v.0.1 overclocked to 800 with the Red Rum Theme. I'm a heavy phone user in my opinion. I dont' know how much longer I'd need my batter to last outside of the day I'm out of the house at work and back. when I'm home, I can charge it when I need to. So, as I see it, the new Droid isn't really that big of a hoot for me to want to shell out cash for. At least not as a new phone.

Teh Flower

Except we already know the realworld graphical capabilities of the OMAP3430 in the Droid because… we all own one… So an 80% graphical power improvement over that, while giving off less heat and consuming less power thanks to its 45nm manufacturing process…

Those are major improvements.

Your battery lasts a day @ 800mhz. Maybe now it will last a day at 1.6ghz. Battery life improvements are always welcome in my book. It just gives me more options.

And why is everyone acting like this thing won't be rooted and overclocked within a couple weeks haha. Most Droid users cap out their overclocking between 1-1.25 ghz. I would bet this processor goes higher for us. Meaning even MORE power.

Jai Taigas

Here's my view point. As I've said in other posts. A new cell phone is expensive. It's not just the cost of the phone itself, if it's the 99, 199, or full price you pay for your phone when it's released. It also includes the monthly costs of your contract as well. You are literally thousands of dollars for a phone. Let's use my plan for example. I pay 88 bucks a month. at 12 months that breaks 1000 dollars. Plus the phone cost of the droid. The real cost of that phone is going to be 1199 dollars within one year. After two years I will have paid 2199 dollars roughly for that phone and it's use. That is the total cost of the phone. Now I want to ask you, are you actually willing to pay over 2000 dollars total just for an extra 200 hrz of power and a longer battery, when the one you already have should last you the day as is. Let's ignore the percentages because honestly, they are a false representation of what the numbers actually are, they are an estimation. Percentages are never concrete, as an accountant, I have learned to never fully trust them. Personally, I am not willing to spend 2k of total cost on a new phone that is only a minor improvement over it's predecessor. Especially when I already have the first Gen Droid that does exactly what I want with about 700 dollars of cost already sunk into it. It's just not financially smart to trade up to something that's just a minor improvement in areas you will hardly notice.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/BH35ELSPYB6NTWJ2U4UW45DMAA martin craig

Hmm i really dont think you are factoring in thing such as Minutes which for me lets say £10 and at 10p per minute thats 100 miutes. Then what 5-10p per text? So adding in again if your contract is anything like mine.700 minutes (more than £30's worth of top ups) and unlimited texts (more than again) and 1gb download…The lets add the price of the phone so what £300-400? (British sterling pounds) Spread that over 18 months and lets say you have a 18 month contract :@ £35 ppm= £630's well lets minus the 300-400 for the phone price and then the rest would be the minutes and texts etc… Well I say fair deal! Hell i spend more a year on my house phone!

Really if your contract is crap learn to haggle with your provider espcially when they phone YOU up!

Jai Taigas

First and foremost, I never complained about my contract so I have no idea where you are getting that from. I am perfectly happy with it. Secondly, the minutes you pay for don't matter. It's the difference of the total cost that matters, and that is where you need to follow the line. If you are paying 50 bucks for 700 minutes or 800 minutes. You are still paying 50 bucks. That fact does not change. Also, the cost of the phone itself isn't spread over a set amount of months, unless your phone company has some kick ass deal mine doesn't. Or you purchased it with a credit card I dunno. Generally you paid for it upfront at once. So the cost of your phone won't be spread out over the months. It's going to be a one lump sum normally. Mind you, the credit card aspect is another story. You are still going into debt for that phone in one purchase. So the cost is still going to be accrued all at once. By the end of the year, ignoring how many minutes I have, I am still going to pay the 1000 dollars for my phone. That does not change, me having 450 minutes a month or 5600 minutes a month won't change the fact that I plan to spend 1000 dollars this year on my phone. Again, total cost is what is important here, not spreading the cost out. So the real question is, are you willing to spend a total cost of some bits of money for an new phone like the droid 2? Personally, I am not. When I look at the total cost, am I willing to start over again, get another phone, more sunk cost into that new phone. You might find it to be a great deal. Each person has their own view points and preference on how they spend their cash. For me? A slightly higher powered processor with more battery life isn't worth it. Besides, there's nothing I do on my phone that requires me to have more then a cpu of 600 to 700. My o/s runs smooth, suring the net and reading the news, including flash is perfectly fine. running games and movies have no problems. Why would I want or need anything more? BUT if I do pay for more, am i going to pay for 200 more with a better battery? Or am I going to pay for 500 more and break the 1 gig market. In your own words, if that one at only 700 has that much great potential, how much more potential would a 1 gig processor have?

Jai Taigas

eh, after re-reading my statement, I'm unsure if i said what i ment to say. Regardless. Let's just agree to disagree and agree we both love the Motorola Droid :p I'm way to lazy to constantly scroll back down these lists to find this and type more :p

p.s. i love my droid :p

Jasona_2011

dude i get wat your saying i just dont see where u are getting all the extra money from? cause i mean ur talkin bout 1000 dollars for a phone but the new droid since its supposed to be just update of the original droid should only cost maybe 150? 200? i fail to see how this leads to 1000 big ones. r u including the some of the phone bill? cause u probably shouldnt n sry if that sounded mean im just voicing my opinion and another thing r u just talkin about buying the phone alone? or with a new plan?

Jasona_2011

yes i know its been a month but my phone plan is ending in august this year and depending on which company is cheaper decides which phone i get either iphone 4 or the new droid possibly coming out n im new to the site

kgb

No matter what phone you sign up for service, they are going to charge you monthly service fees. Even if it isn't a new phone. That isn't a cost of the device. Most people already have a phone bill, this doesn't go away by not buying a new phone. Only if the bill goes up does the issue you are discussing here really come into play, and then it would only be the difference between the original plan and the new one.

david

yea

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=707166291 John Lee

to actually use the apps2sd, realistically you would have to go buy atleast a class 5 card. most likely you would want to go with the class 6 cards…have you seen how much a 32GB MicroSDHC Class 6 goes for? I'd rather keep the apps internal and the rest external.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/BH35ELSPYB6NTWJ2U4UW45DMAA martin craig

I like the point you made its a smaller chip so we should see less power consumption so longer battery etc. Also it was what 1.6? rather than latest being 2.2? Maybe i miss heard, Though 2,2 gives a boost and from 1.6 to 2.2 would the boost not be more significant?Also again on the smaller chip point 45 from 65 was it? Less heat and less power so OC it more and still use less power and yet have a more powerful chip no? IF and a big IF comes with the newer then I'd say it probably is more a substantial upgrade.

The loss of the HDMI and better camera is hurtful but well for me personally I will be upgrading from my G1 (god bless it) to something newer so a upgrade it is for me to say the least.

david

ya the keyboard is still the same

aczm1988

WOW this is gonna be sooooo lame lol. 750Mhz processor? NO TY lol. Also even if it had a 500Mhz processor as soon as i saw moto blur i automatically didnt want it. I dont care if you can turn it off or whatever i dont want it on my phone lol. Ill stick to the first droid till something more pleasing comes out.

Qwkartist2000

i hear u can turn it off but if we could find a way to unistall ourselves that would be awesome

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jabril-Davis/1845803827 Jabril Davis

Im sorry droid lifers but this sucks. .. the only good thing is the internal memory, motoblur, and wifi tether other than that I think ill stick to my droid original

Jsebeny1980

i think ill wait until the Droid with a 2GHz processor is out 😀

Doolidg

I'm with you on that one

snafu009

Kill the Motoblur; kill it fast, kill it dead! Other than that I actually like what I see

http://twitter.com/BrucetTheMoose Bruce Todd

So everyone is aware. BB v0.1 2.2 is in ROM manager now. I'm loving it, having no problems as of yet.

http://twitter.com/BrucetTheMoose Bruce Todd

So everyone is aware. BB v0.1 2.2 is in ROM manager now. I'm loving it, having no problems as of yet.

Shaden79

i am sorry but i am i the only one who thinks the droid 2 looks uglier than sin and has now real improvements over the first one other than that you will be stuck longer on out dated software due to motoblur?

Shaden79

i am sorry but i am i the only one who thinks the droid 2 looks uglier than sin and has now real improvements over the first one other than that you will be stuck longer on out dated software due to motoblur?

aczm1988

+Agreed

EC8CH

+1

That is the real problem with Motorblur. Even if it can be disabled, it is still sure to slow down the release of of software updates. It's confusing why they would change a “Google experience” device to Motorblur. Save Motorblur for your lower end phone next time please.

http://twitter.com/BrucetTheMoose Bruce Todd

Not worth switching from my beloved DROID! I just got a new one after this weekend. My 2 yr old decided that it was dirty and needed to be cleaned up in the kitchen sink. God bless insurance.

It thought only “Google Experience” phones with vanilla android could use the “with Google” branding?

Javikid

I'm glad I got the Incredible

Thepaintpirate

Out of all of that, the only thing that I liked was the back of the phone. Dont like the looks, keyboard, motoblur, internals or anything. I'd call it a Droid 1.5

dylan84

Actually “Droid 1.5″ is a damn good way of describing the phone. It only feels like a slight upgrade of the original Droid…and is definitely not enough to make me want to buy it. I'll stick with my Droid.

http://syntakk.blogspot.com syntakk

Ummm, what's the point? That's barely an upgrade, and it looks almost identical. And the dpad is still on the right, would have loved for it to have been moved to the left side. I'll definitely be passing on this one. That 2ghz super moto phone that was mentioned may be getting my money at the end of the year though 😉

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